Congo looking for buyers of artisanal gold
Tue Sep 03 2024
THE Democratic Republic of Congo is looking for new buyers of artisanally mined gold from its eastern territories after taking full control of Primera Gold which held the contract.
UAE-based Primera Group recently sold its stake in Congo-based Primera Gold ending a controversial arrangement where it had been granted sole rights to trade gold, said Reuters in a report on August 30.
“We are very open to new buyers, we have been criticised for being exclusive,” Primera’s director-general, Joseph Kazibaziba, told Reuters. “We are even interested in finding buyers in Europe,” he added.
Congo’s deal with Primera, signed in 2022, was intended to clean up the country’s artisanal mining sector, where smuggling has led to the loss of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year and helped fund armed groups destabilising the mineral-rich east, said Reuters.
The contract gave Primera Gold a majority share in two joint ventures with exclusive rights to export artisanally-mined gold at a preferential rate of 0.25%.
Watchdog ‘Le Congo n’est pas a vendre’ (Congo is not for sale), a group of 14 Congolese and international organisations that push for transparency in the mining and financial sectors, has said the government needs to provide clarity on why Primera stepped away from the contract and called for an investigation.
Primera Group’s corporate license in UAE expired in March, according to government records.
Primera Gold has recently faced challenges buying gold in eastern Congo due to illicit traders who smuggle the mineral to Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda and are willing to pay more, according to a UN Security Council Report released in June.
Source: https://www.miningmx.com